The Hindu Business Line : Kolkata's Ruby General Hospital unveils Rs 10-cr expansion plan

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Kolkata's Ruby General Hospital unveils Rs 10-cr expansion plan

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Releases country's first `patients' bill of rights'

Medical Facilities
The hospital will soon be starting a specialised segment in "Uro-gynaecology" and "24-hr Trauma Centre".
It has also planned direct collaboration with University of Medicine, New Jersey, and other medical colleges in the US.

Kolkata , Jan. 3

Ruby General Hospital, the Kolkata-based NRI-run multi-speciality medical facility, has planned a Rs 10-crore infrastructure expansion, which will take the beds capacity from the existing 150 to 300. Expected to be completed in phases, most likely by end 2008, the hospital management today announced a novel "Patients' bill of rights," said to be the first of its kind in the country.

Addressing presspersons here today, Dr Kamal Kr Dutta, Managing Director of Ruby General, who is attached to leading hospitals in New Jersey, US, said the patients' bill of rights, based on the model followed by US hospitals, will ensure "relevant, current and understandable information in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis for patients, and will also provide immediate and long term financial implications of treatment choices".

Promised Services

Asked if there would be a legal side to the whole thing, like whether a patient can take the hospital to Court for non-receipt of promised services, Dr Dutta said the focus was now entirely patient-centric, and the document would be handed over to patients soon.

"If after all this, still someone wants to take us to Court, we are ready to face such a situation," he added. He, however, clarified that negotiated reduction in charges in connection with inadequate services was an option available for patients.

Ruby, the first doctor NRI-run hospital in eastern India, according to Dr Dutta, will soon be starting a specialised segment in "Uro-gynaecology" and "24-hr Trauma Centre" with a team of super specialty doctors to attend to emergency cases.

"Since the location of the hospital at the busy Eastern Metropolitan (EM) Bypass crossing, known as a highly accident-prone site, I think we are viably located to house a fully specialised trauma care unit."

Tie-up with hospitals

The Hospital has also planned direct collaboration with University of Medicine, New Jersey, and other medical colleges in the US. He said besides direct video conferencing with specialists in the US, there will also be a regular interval study tour for the final year US students to Ruby General, "for a cross exchange of experiences and technologies between both countries".

Dr Dutta said: "We are also planning a tie-up with the American Association of Physicians from India (in the US), while Ruby General would be their continuing medical training centre in eastern India." Ruby, he informed, has already applied to the American Heart Training Association to be their designated life support-training centre in eastern India.

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